At SSW, we understand that conflict is a healthy and inevitable aspect of living in a learning community.
For this reason, faculty, students and staff developed our Community Agreement to communicate our vision and our expectations of the collective responsibility to build and support a compassionate, accountable community. In addition, our Sotomayor Collective includes fellows who have office hours open to anyone in the community for private consultation to examine and discuss how power, privilege or other aspects of social identity may be at play in learning spaces or situations of interpersonal tension or conflict. These two components of our program exist to support the regular ebb and flow of conflict that might emerge within a residential learning community.
We also know that there are times when students encounter either more specific or more significant challenges and need to engage with our problem-solving process. This may result from concerns regarding academic progress, a difficulty with living in alignment with our essential attributes or a significant harm to our community.
In these cases, these are the three structures within our Problem-Solving Process and all the details can be found in the Student Handbook. Details about each step can be found below.
Steps to the Problem-Solving Process
Informal Student Problem Solving Process
Conference
Academic Review
Student engages directly with the instructor or supervisor to address concerns or problems.
If necessary, the advisor can be invited to participate in the informal problem-solving process.
A conference is a supportive, problem-solving process.
Typically, a Conference is initiated by the Office of Practicum Learning during the year and the ADAA’s Office during the summer.
The Conference produces an Action Plan with measurable objectives. Progress is monitored by the Office of Practicum Learning during the year and the ADAA’s Office during the summer.
If progress has not been made by the identified timeline a student can be referred to a confidential, formal process to review supporting materials and make a determination of best next steps. There are a range of possible outcomes.
Students may be referred to a review in cases of ongoing academic difficulty that have not been resolved successfully through an informal problem-solving process or the Academic Consultation Phase.
In rare cases, a student can be referred to a review for Personal and Professional Misconduct Violations [handbook 700.2.2.A]